New Delhi: Giving false documents to get mobile SIM card or misrepresenting identity on over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms like WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram can lead to a jail term of up to one year or a fine of up to Rs 50,000 for a telecom consumer.
The Telecommunications Department (DoT) incorporated these provisions into the recently released draft Telecommunications Act to protect users from online financial fraud and other illegal activities.
There have been numerous cases of financial fraud committed by cyber criminals, who usually take SIM cards on fake documents and hide their real identities in OTT apps to make calls.
According to an official explanation of the bill, every telecom user must know who is calling. “This will help prevent cyber fraud involving telecom services. That is why provisions on identity have been included at relevant places in the bill”, according to the explanation. Paragraph 7 of Article 4 of the draft bill obliges telecom users to state their identity. Misrepresentation of identity by a person using telecommunications services can lead to imprisonment for up to one year, the imposition of a fine of up to Rs 50,000, or the suspension of telecommunications services; or a combination of these. This is defined as a recognizable crime, which means that a police officer can arrest without a warrant and start an investigation without permission from the court.
The government has seriously investigated the problem of online financial fraud and has determined that in the future, even the OTT platforms must fulfill the know-your-customer (KYC) formalities of the users.
“The new bill will tackle the situation of cyber fraud head-on and tackle it in advance, not just in one, but in multiple dimensions. The obligation of KYC, guaranteeing obligations to the users, including different ways of calling, in the draft telecom lawand I firmly believe that with the implementation of this bill, we can achieve a significant reduction in cyber fraud,” said Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw said recently while explaining the bill.
He spoke to reporters on Friday and clarified that the draft telecom bill– which should become law within six to 10 months – has clearly defined that the apps that provide communication services will be brought under the telecom law, taking into account the security needs of users, not those providing broadcasting services. Furthermore, there is no provision to enforce decryption of encrypted messages in the draft telecom law, but there is a clear mechanism for interception, based on a Supreme Court ruling.
He said that a person who is being called must know who is calling. It covers all kinds of calls be it normal voice call, WhatsApp call, FaceTime or any other OTT call. “The distinction between a voice and data call has disappeared. KYC should be done for all platforms and the services should be covered by the same law,” the minister said. “With that thought process, OTTs have been brought under the definition of telecom.”
The DoT already has a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Body from India, asking to recommend a mechanism that allows a caller’s name to flash on the screen when a call comes in. The name would be according to the telecom subscriber’s KYC record.
Such a mechanism would allow telecom users to know the caller’s name even if it is not stored in their phonebook. Currently, users can know the identity of the caller using apps like true callerbut the limitation with such apps is that the data is crowdsourced so it may not be 100% authentic – something that can be guaranteed by KYC data.